You can’t always (ever?) be wildly creative in corporate writing. But you can and should choose words and phrases that are interesting and colourful to help your readers “see” what you mean.
Finding phrases that practically sing always gives me a thrill, and the December issue of Wordnerdery includes some great examples.
A ‘linguistic cicada’ emerges when the opportunity arises. An example is ‘unfriend,’ which dates back to 1659, lay fallow for about 350 years, and ‘reappeared with a vengeance’ in the Facebook age. – Oxford Dictionaries
“For all those who are ready to set their quills to parchment and declare the end of the English language, now that such frivolous terms [as ‘hot mess’ and ‘binge-watch’] are getting respect from Oxford, please keep in mind that this is not the Oxford English Dictionary. That arm of the family is more like the serious and intellectual grandfather who constantly withholds his approval from younger generations.” – TIME magazine on new words
“[MacGowan] sang like a man serenading the bottom of a garbage can, pausing while on a stumble through the dark streets of his life.” – Dave Bidini in the National Post
“The report is, shall we say, unwieldy in its use of jargon, and densely forested with word-thickets where management likes to hide the bodies.” – Elizabeth Renzetti, describing the jargon in management’s report on the future of the CBC
“[Soccer player Andrés] Iniesta’s natural reticence is balanced by a chimney sweep’s comfort in tight spaces.” – Jeré Longman, quoted in Five Journalists Offer Free Lessons in Business Storytelling
Most of these little businesses–the ones we fondly call mom-and-pop shops–were boarded up long ago, and their neon OPEN signs flicker only in family legend. – Christine Lagorio-Chafkin in Inc.
The sprawling interior of Sam the Record Man’s store on Yonge Street was “organized with all the finesse of a steamer trunk packed by somebody given five minutes’ notice to leave the country.” – Writer Gerald Levitch (quoted in The Globe and Mail)
“Part B [of his life] was a six-car pileup of clichés.” – Dan Pink in a convocation address to Weinberg College
What expressive writing have you noticed lately? Tell me about it!
Cicada mage: “Pakorn” and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.